Sunday, July 13, 2014

Almond Foam Cake

My Perfect Almond Foam Cake

I started my journey of foam cakes (Cakes where no other fat or very little fat other than eggs is used) and my very first foam cake was a dacquoise which is basically 'a dessert cake made with layers of almond or hazelnut meringue and whipped cream or buttercream) Well I was trying my hands at Opera cake and it being French though I had jotted down the recipe of an Opera cake from a regular blog I decided to make the best of Google translator and followed a French blog. The first difference I noticed was that the French blog or rather the 6 blogs I read through had absolutely no all purpose flour involved. I was fascinated with the idea of a cake made with almonds alone and then when I made it I was a convert forever. I mean the Opera was lopsided but caught the fancy of my guests who declared it a raging success. The next time I made a dacquoise my friends said that this was the best frosted cake they have had . Ah well I felt I was floating in the air along with my airy cake. Then there came a time when a particular recipe caught my fancy and I followed it but this time my almond cake was a bit too soggy. To be fair in my previous endeavours I was way too engrossed with the entire assimilation to give extra thought to the base and since the other recipes gave results which were good enough I had never bothered myself with this before and suddenly I felt the need to search for that perfect recipe for almond cake which would be as light as the air fluffier than a souffle and perfect for my taste one which would not only be the perfect base for a gateau but that which would be a perfect light accompaniment with tea or coffee .

I finally found a recipe which by the looks of it seemed perfect but then most recipes for almond foam cake does use yolks so this is what I did. i divided my batter and one half had yolks and the other didn't. Now you have to please wait for the recipe to know which one was a winner for me

Well so here is a recipe which can serve 4 to 5 because no one can limit themselves to one helping with these darlings
Sporce of recipe Italiandish

What you need :- (all cups used hold 250ml liquid)

1 cup of egg whites beaten to stiff peaks
A few drops of lemon juice
2 cups of almond flour (If you are making it at home like me you would need 200gm almonds)
3/4th cup of icing sugar
3 tbsp cornflour

Now its very simple if you are making the almond flour simply blanch, dry , toast and grind them on high speed and then mix the cornflour, almond flour and sugar together.

prepare the pan by lining it with butter paper. Preheat oven to 160 C Take the egg whites and add the lemon juice, ( adding lemon juice prevents the egg whites from collapsing once they are whipped to firm peaks) and well whip them to firm peaks and gently fold in 3/4th of the whipped egg whites with the dry ingredients and then quickly add the rest of the egg whites and fold it in. You must never try to whisk the whipped egg whites with the dry ingredients else your cake will not rise at all and be a dense mess. Bake at 160 C for 35 minutes to 45 minutes. Once it has been baked let it cool down completely (15 minutes to 20 minutes) before removing it from the pan. If you try to remove it before it has cooled down the cake will break. Now carefully peel off the butter paper sprinkle some icing sugar and enjoy it as it is with a cup of tea.

In case you want a fruity variant how about a peachy glaze

Take two plump peaches

Now bring a bowl of water to boil and drop in the peaches and wait for 2 minutes , take it out wash ti with cold water and peel off the skin, Now make half moon slivers and make a syrup with 4 tbsp sugar and 8 tbsp water, add the peaches and when it bubbles add the juice from 1/4th of a lemon and let it simmer. Once it cools down arrange the peaches on the cake and serve it. The tangy flavour was wonderful.

Egg white only on the left

Now you must be wondering why I would choose this over the one where nothing else is different except the addition of 3 egg yolks with the dry ingredients before the egg whites are folded in. Well it was light as well and in fact it puffed up even more but the one which had egg whites alone was lighter and that was all that it needed to win.